Honda began selling the Super Cub C100 in August 1958. The Honda Super Cub family has never left production since. By October 2017, Honda had built 100 million of them. Few machines of any kind can match a run like that. That staying power shows up all over Honda’s motorcycle history. Many of its small twins and odd experiments started life as cheap transport, beginner bikes or niche toys. Yet decades later, riders keep them commuting, racing and touring long after anyone planned for them to retire. These are our picks: eight Honda motorcycles that, in our view, outlived the expectations set for them. The facts come from Honda, period road tests and collector guides. Every verdict is our own. 1. 1959 Honda Super Cub C100 The C100 started it all. Its 49 cc air-cooled four-stroke single made 4.5 horsepower, which looks like almost nothing on paper. Even so, the step-through layout let shopkeepers, students and delivery riders hop on without learning the habits of a motorcyclist first. Honda’s own numbers show how far that simple idea traveled. According to Honda’s 2017 milestone announcement, cumulative Honda Super Cub production reached 100 million units in October 2017. By then, the series came from 16 plants in 15 countries and sold in more than 160. Meanwhile, in America, the bike also fronted the “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” ads. That campaign began in 1963. Our take: nobody in 1958 could have guessed that a 50 cc runabout would become the most produced motor vehicle in history. That is the purest case of outliving expectations on this list. For owners, the basic design changed so little over the decades that the C100’s layout looks familiar on any modern Cub. If you find a 1959 C100, keep it original, because it is the version that started the whole story. 2. 1965 Honda Dream CB72 Super Sport The CB72 was the 250 cc sibling of the CB77 Super Hawk. It gave many riders their first taste of a sporty Japanese twin. It shared the bigger bike’s specifications except for a 54 mm bore and 22 mm carburetors. As a result, it displaced 247 cc and made a little less power than the 305 cc Hawk. Its family tree also has a famous branch. Author Robert M. Pirsig rode a 1966 CB77 on the 1968 road trip behind Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Later, his wife donated that motorcycle to the Smithsonian Institution in 2019. Honda then replaced the CB72 and CB77 with its K-series 250 and 350 twins. As a result, the Super Sport’s own showroom life was fairly short. Its reputation, by contrast, kept growing. In our view, the CB72 outlived its job as a stepping stone. Honda built it for young buyers who would trade up, yet a sorted example remains a lively, rev-happy ride six decades later. If you shop for one, buy the most complete bike you can afford, since original trim pieces make or break a restoration. 3. 1970 Honda CB350 The CB350 was Honda’s everyday middleweight from 1968 to 1973, and it sold in staggering numbers. Its 325.6 cc air-cooled parallel twin used a single overhead camshaft and twin carburetors. Honda sold 67,180 of them in 1972 alone. That kind of volume put the CB350 among Honda’s best sellers. It shows in how many turn up at swap meets today. The reason for that success was simple: the bike just worked. Hagerty’s look at Honda’s 350 twins praises their reliable starting and their freedom from the oil leaks and electrical gremlins common at the time. Both electric and kick starters came fitted, too. Hagerty also puts combined CB350, CL350 and SL350 production at more than 626,000 bikes. It valued a good runner at about $2,000. Our take: Honda designed the CB350 as affordable commuter transport, not as a future classic. However, so many survive and run so well that, to us, it feels like the natural first vintage bike for almost anyone. If you want one, buy the cleanest unmolested example you can find, because cheap projects are easy to get and expensive to finish. 4. 1971 Honda SL350 The SL350 was Honda’s off-road answer to Yamaha’s DT-1, and it shared the street twin’s basic engine. Honda tuned it for torque rather than top-end power. According to Old Bike Mart’s SL350 profile, it made 33 bhp against 36 bhp for the CB and CL versions. Honda kept improving it during a short life. The 1970 model gained a more dirt-focused twin-tube frame, and 1971 brought a 21-inch front wheel with larger fork tubes. That wheel size later became the standard for dirt bikes. Hagerty counts about 90,830 SL350s built in the Motosport range, which ran from 1969 to 1973. In our view, the SL350 outlived its reputation as a heavy, rushed scrambler. It was never a pure dirt bike, but it has aged into a handsome, easy trail cruiser with Honda manners. Old Bike Mart notes that an immaculate one sold at Bonhams for £4,830, so budget accordingly if you want a perfect 1971. For a rider, though, a tidy runner makes more sense. After all, the SL350 is happiest on a gravel road, not a show lawn. 5. 1972 Honda CT70 Mini Trail Honda introduced the ST70 minibike in August 1969, and American buyers knew it as the CT70 Trail 70. In Japan and Europe it carried the Dax name instead. The recipe was pure fun. It had a pressed-steel “T-bone” frame, a bench seat, fat little tires and folding handlebars. That formula refused to go away. For example, Honda kept selling the CT70 in the U.S. through 1994, long after most minibikes of its era had vanished. Then, in 2023, the Dax name returned in Europe on the ST125. Collectors pay real money for clean originals, too. Hagerty’s past-sales record lists a yellow 1972 CT70 H Trail that sold for $5,906. Our take: Honda built a pit bike and a kid’s toy. Instead, it ended up with a cult classic that outlasted generations of bigger machines. If you buy a 1972 CT70, check the frame for bends and the seat for originality. Both tell you how hard the little Honda was ridden over the years. A tired engine is the easy part, by comparison, because the little single is simple to rebuild. 6. 1973 Honda CB175 K7 The CB175 was one of Honda’s small twins, the kind of bike a new rider bought before moving up. Its roughly 174 cc parallel twin used a single overhead camshaft with two valves per cylinder. Honda built the series from 1969 to 1973 after an earlier 1968 K0 model. The K7 sat near the end of that run. It kept the clean, simple look of Honda’s early 1970s twins. After that, Honda dropped it for 1974 and replaced it with the CB200. Even so, small twins like the CB175 ranked among Honda’s best sellers of the 1960s and 1970s. That means plenty of them reached riders, and many of those riders never let go. In our view, the CB175 K7 outlived expectations because it was never supposed to matter. Honda pitched it as a light, revvy commuter for students and first-timers. Instead, its size and simplicity make it, to our eyes, a natural fit for café builders who want something easy to work on. If you want a 1973 K7, favor an original, complete bike over a half-finished custom. Stock parts are what keep the value up. 7. 1974 Honda CB360 The CB360 replaced the CB350 for 1974, and Cycle World was not impressed. In its March 1974 road test of the CB360G, Cycle World noted an actual displacement of 356 cc and a new six-speed gearbox. The test bike listed at $999, and its front disc brake cost $36 more than the drum. The magazine liked that disc and called it one of the machine’s best features. However, it also found more vibration and worse handling than the old 350, plus a top speed of 96 mph. In the end, Cycle World judged that the CB360 had “less consumer appeal than the original.” Honda sold it for only two years, and then the CB360 left the lineup. Our take: the CB360 outlived that lukewarm review. Cycle World’s own testers guessed that the reworked engine was probably more reliable than its predecessor. That matters, because an engine that holds together keeps an old bike on the road. It also has the six-speed box that 350 owners never got. If you buy one, look for the disc-brake CB360G, because that was the version the testers praised. 8. 1997 Honda PC800 Pacific Coast The Pacific Coast was Honda’s attempt to sell a motorcycle to people who did not think they wanted one. It wrapped an 800 cc liquid-cooled V-twin, with three valves per cylinder, in full bodywork. Out back, a waterproof trunk straddled the rear wheel and lifted open on a hydraulic strut, a design no later Honda copied. Sales never matched the ambition. Honda sold a little over 14,000 across North America, Europe and Japan between 1989 and 1998. According to Jalopnik’s history of the bike, it skipped the U.S. market from 1991 to 1993, made 57 horsepower and weighed roughly 640 pounds. Honda aimed to make it as maintenance-free as possible, although major engine work means pulling many plastic panels. In our view, the PC800 outlived its “commuter appliance” label and aged into a capable two-up tourer. That is why we put the 1997 model here. Jalopnik’s writer put the going rate for a used one at about $1,500 to $2,000. That is a bargain for a touring bike that seats two and swallows their luggage. Few motorcycles from 1997 offer that much comfort for so little money.
Liked by Jackson Gagnon, Hannah Hall
Liked by Jackson Gagnon, Hannah Hall
Liked by Jackson Gagnon, Hannah Hall
